Cowboys' draft haul filled with 'right kind of guys'

Garrett's emphasis on character evident.

Updated 12:43 am, Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Defensive end Tyrone Crawford of Boise State, like five of the Cowboys’ other six 2012 picks, was a team captain in college.

Defensive end Tyrone Crawford of Boise State, like five of the Cowboys’ other six 2012 picks, was a team captain in college.

Photo: Doug Pensinger, Getty Images

Cowboys' draft haul filled with 'right kind of guys'

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Dallas Cowboys coach Jason Garrett has said repeatedly the past two years he wants “the right kind of guys” on the team, meaning ones who practice and play with “passion, emotion and enthusiasm.”

From top to bottom, the seven-member Cowboys 2012 draft class is loaded with such players, Garrett said.

“Our experience has been that when you have a lot of these kinds of guys on your team, you practice better and you play better,” Garrett said. “It's infectious.”

The class also includes plenty of leaders. Six were captains of their college teams, including first-round cornerback Morris Claiborne (LSU), third-round defensive end Tyrone Crawford (Boise State) and fourth-round outside linebacker Kyle Wilber (Wake Forest).

Four of the eight members of the Cowboys' 2011 draft class were also college captains.

“It meant a lot of players looked up to me,” Wilber said of being a captain. “I had to stay focused on the football field and also in the classroom and let players know when they were getting out of line and when they need to get more focused.”

“I tried to be an example of a guy that would get it done on the field and in school,” he said. “I worked hard and took football and everything that comes with it seriously.”

While Garrett puts a premium on character, he made it clear he believes the club's lower-round picks — Wilber, Johnson, Coale, sixth-round tight end James Hanna (Oklahoma) and McSurdy — are more than just high-character players with non-stop motors.

“It's not like they are ... undersized guys who will run through the wall for you but can't play in the NFL,” Garrett said. “These guys have the physical traits to play, and they also have the intangible qualities, which we think can help them be their best and help our team.”

Garrett believes the high character of the last five picks will allow them to accept special-teams duty early in their careers, then fulfill their potential as position players.

“If you look at the character of each of them, we believe they have the make-up to be really good players,” Garrett said. “Why do we think that is so important? We feel like that allows them, as much as anything else, to achieve their potential.”

The only player with a character-related red flag attached to his name before the draft was Claiborne, and that was for his low score on the Wonderlic Test at the NFL Scouting Combine.

Claiborne admitted last week he “blew off the test” after he discovered it didn't contain any football questions. After extensive research, the Cowboys concluded the issue was overblown.